Microsoft and RIM have announced that RIM has licensed Redmond's exFAT patents. The press release contains a ridiculous amount of hyperbole nonsense, and if you translate it into regular people speak, it basically comes down to RIM paying Microsoft protection money for stupid nonsensical software patents. Ridiculous articles like like this make it seem as if we're talking about patents on major technological breakthroughs, but don't be fooled: this is because for some inexplicable reason, we're using crappy FAT for SD cards.

Paying royalties in order to have interoperability is perfectly fine and the EU will not do anything about that.

I know and I object to that. It stifles innovation in open-source which is forced to either pay up (using money they don't have) or remain forever unable to compete. I'd be calmer if only the inventions really were patent-worthy, but a patent on some primitive algorithm for 8.3 name handling is just ludicrous...

The EU would only intervene if Microsoft wouldn't want to license exFAT to others, or if the royalties were way too high.

I know, that's why I said "FRAND nonsense patents".

Remember, this is the same EU which has been trying to approve software patents for years.

That's the European Commission, not the "EU" and not the European Parliament. The EC is a body of appointed bureaucrats that aren't directly responsible to the electorate, so it's quite obvious they are the first go-to place for corrupting interests.